Red Earth and Pouring Rain by Vikram Chandra
"Red Earth and Pouring Rain" by Vikram Chandra is a novel that intertwines the lives of characters across different time periods, blending elements of Magical Realism with historical narrative. The story begins in 1989, when Abhay Mirsa returns to India from the United States and inadvertently becomes involved in the fate of a monkey, which holds the reincarnated soul of Sanjay Parasher, a nineteenth-century Brahman. The tale unfolds as Sanjay, through a deal with Yama, the Hindu god of death, narrates his life story, which reflects the complexities of colonial India under the British East India Company.
As Sanjay types out his experiences, the narrative reveals his connections with notable historical figures, including European mercenaries and Indian royalty, exploring themes of love, power, and cultural identity. The characters navigate challenges such as familial expectations, societal norms, and personal desires, set against a backdrop of significant historical events. Through intertwining timelines, the novel examines the intersection of personal and national histories, ultimately leading to a reflection on resilience and the transformative power of storytelling. The title itself evokes rich imagery, symbolizing the intertwined nature of land, emotion, and memory within the Indian cultural landscape.
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Subject Terms
Red Earth and Pouring Rain by Vikram Chandra
- Born: July 23, 1961
- Birthplace: New Delhi, India
First published: 1995
Type of work: Novel
Type of plot: Magical realism
Time of plot: 1751–1989
Locale: Ajmer, Rajasthan, India; northern India; Pomona, California; Houston, Texas; London
Principal Characters
Abhay Mirsa, a young Indian returning home from the United States in 1989
Amanda James, his girlfriend, from Texas
Sanjay Parasher, an Indian Brahman living in the nineteenth century
James "Sikander" Skinner, a successful Anglo-Indian soldier
Janvi "Jenny" Skinner, an Indian princess, the mother of Sikander
Begum Sumroo, an Indian princess
Dr. Paul Sarthey, a British physician presented as Jack the Ripper
Benoit de Boigne, George Thomas, and Walter Reinhardt the Sombre, European mercenaries in India
The Story
In 1989, after graduating from Pomona College in California, Abhay Mirsa returns to his parents in Ajmer in northwestern India. He shoots a monkey for stealing his jeans. When his parents take in the monkey to save its life, the story becomes one of Magical Realism.
Reincarnated in the wounded monkey’s body is the soul of Sanjay Parasher, an Indian Brahman of the nineteenth century. The monkey startles Abhay by typing his name on a typewriter. Yama, the Hindu god of death, appears to claim Sanjay’s soul. With the help of Hanuman, the monkey-shaped Hindu god, Sanjay reaches a deal with Yama, which serves to frame the narrative. Sanjay will type out his story, to be read aloud to a public audience outside. If the audience does not lose interest, Sanjay can live in the monkey’s body.
Sanjay’s meandering story covers the rise of the British East India Company in the eighteenth and nineteenth century. It contains historical people whose real characters and actual fates are significantly changed by the story.
Sanjay tells of European mercenary Benoit de Boigne, who arrives in India in 1778. Serving a local Indian ruler, Boigne sets up two European-trained Indian infantry brigades. With them, he wins a series of amazing victories. At the height of his power, Boigne leaves India for France, where he dies, disillusioned with his life.
When Sanjay’s monkey body is tired from typing, Abhay takes over. He tells of his senior year at Pomona, during which he falls in love with freshman Amanda James from Texas. They share a frightful night on drugs.
Supported by the Hindu elephant god Ganesha, Sanjay continues his story the next evening. He tells of George Thomas and Walter Reinhardt the Sombre, other nineteenth-century European mercenaries fighting for local Indian potentates. They compete for the love of a widowed Indian princess. She marries Reinhardt, becoming Begum Sumroo. Thomas moves on and is present when a local ruler’s castle falls to the British East India Company.
Next, the British leader Hercules Skinner prevents Princess Janvi from committing suicide and marries her, calling her Jenny. Next door to the Skinners in Bengal live the Parashers, a Brahman couple. Janvi befriends the wife, Shanti Devi, and her brother Ram Mohan. Though married to Skinner, Janvi is obsessed with having sons with George Thomas. To that end, an Indian soldier friend, Uday Singh, brings four balls of laddoo, an Indian sweet, which contain the blood of Thomas, taken from his fingers. They were also touched by an old mystic, Begum Sumroo, Boigne, Uday, and Ram Mohan. Janvi eats three, Shanti one. Janvi has three boys in succession. Of those, she most loves the two youngest ones: James, whom she calls Sikander, after Alexander the Great, and Robert, whom she calls Chotta. Meanwhile, Shanti gives birth to Sanjay.
Sanjay narrates his boyhood with Sikander and Chotta. He suffers an accident that temporarily causes him to have double vision and lose his ability to speak. Secretly, the boys watch Hercules Skinner making love with an Indian prostitute. Afterward, the prostitute catches the boys and quotes from an Indian love song. Its lines liken sexuality to red earth and pouring rain, from which the title of the novel originates.
Janvi proposes a trip to the Ganges River to spiritually cleanse her children; they are accompanied by Sanjay. Janvi opposes the plan for her and Skinner’s daughters to receive an English education in Calcutta. On the road, Hercules takes his daughters away by force. Janvi commits suicide on a funeral pyre lit by Chotta.
Sanjay regains his voice. He, Sikander, and Chotta are apprenticed to a printer in Calcutta who serves the British. The boys rebel and run away to Lucknow. There, Uday Singh and Begum Sumroo support them.
Returning to the twentieth century, Abhay tells of a road trip he takes to Houston to meet Amanda’s family. He relays that Amanda’s parents are apparently tolerant of him. Her father invites him to play a cricket match.
Sanjay next tells of becoming a poet, while Sikander and Chotta become soldiers. In his letters to Sanjay, Sikander tells how he meets Boigne and fights his first battle. Two years later, Sikander’s letter tells that he and Chotta met George Thomas in battle. After realizing who they are, Thomas refuses to fight and surrenders to the British, dying soon after. In his next letter, Sikander writes of being wounded in battle and finally joining the British side.
Sanjay meets the love of his life, Gul Jahaan. After Gul has five stillborn babies, she and Sanjay seek help from a traveling British physician, Dr. Paul Sarthey. Sarthey delivers a baby boy for Gul, but she dies in childbirth. Dr. Sarthey performs an autopsy on her, horrifying Sanjay. He steals some of Sarthey’s books to burn them but is caught by Sikander’s troops; he and Sikander reunite. The British defeat a major Indian force in battle. Sanjay ritually kills himself in a cave to become an invincible immortal. Yama grants his wish, and Sanjay reemerges more than thirty-two years later.
Sanjay tries to persuade Sikander and Chotta to fight the British, but they refuse. Chotta commits suicide. Sanjay kills Sikander in 1841. He instigates a rebellion against the British in 1857, but the British troops suppress it. Subsequently, Sanjay is captured and hanged. Reanimated, Sanjay travels to London in 1888. He discovers that Dr. Sarthey is Jack the Ripper and defeats him. Sanjay returns to India to die.
Returning to Abhay, the story relates that he wins the cricket match against Amanda’s father. After graduation, Amanda flies with Abhay to India. She finds Bombay too spooky and returns to the United States.
Outside of where Sanjay and Abhay are writing, a bomb explodes among the audience, injuring Abhay’s female friend Saira. To save her, Abhay vows to continue telling stories until she is healed.
Bibliography
Alexandru, Maria-Sabina Draga. "Alternatives to the Novel Form: Orality and Internet Patterns in Vikram Chandra’s Red Earth and Pouring Rain." Journal of Commonwealth Literature 43.3 (2008): 43–58. Print.
Alexandru, Maria-Sabina Draga. "Performance, Performativity and Nomadism in Vikram Chandra’s Red Earth and Pouring Rain." Comparative Literature Studies 45.1 (2008): 23–39. Literary Reference Center. Web. 2 May 2014. <http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=lfh&AN=31848137&site=lrc-live.>
Ehrfurth, Corinne M. "Elements of Hinduism in Chandra’s Red Earth and Pouring Rain." Comparative Literature and Culture 14.2 (2012): 1–10. Literary Reference Center. Web. 2 May 2014. <http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=lfh&AN=78026391&site=lrc-live.>
Kumar, Amitava. "Louder than Bombs: What’s So Hot about Indian Writing?" Transition 8.3 (1999): 80–101. Print.